New Delhi | The BJP nominated senior leaders Tarun Chugh and Satish Poonia as party candidates for Rajya Sabha polls from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan respectively, even as the names of Union ministers Ravneet Singh Bittu and George Kurian did not figure in the list of 11 candidates released on Thursday.
The term of both the ministers in the Upper House is ending on June 21. While Bittu is a Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan, Kurian represents Madhya Pradesh in the House.
Kurian is probably the only minister in the Union government who belongs to Christian community.
With these two ministers not being renominated and Harsh Malhotra recently appointed as BJP president for Delhi, speculations are rife about an imminent Cabinet reshuffle.
The Rajya Sabha term of Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri is also ending in November.
Chugh, BJP national general secretary, is from Punjab and is currently in-charge of the party affairs in Jammu and Kashmir.
Poonia, former Rajasthan BJP president, is party's in-charge for Haryana. He had lost the 2023 assembly election in Rajasthan.
The BJP's central election committee, which released the names of a total of 11 candidates for Rajya Sabha polls in five states, fielded Debashish Samantaray as its candidate from Odisha.
Samantaray had recently joined the BJP, quitting the BJD. He was a Rajya Sabha MP from Odisha before he quit the party and resigned from the Upper House.
According to the list, Rajubhai Shukla, Mukeshbhai Rathwa, Mansingh Parmar and Jitendra Meghjibhai Kanzariya will contest as BJP candidates from Gujarat, while Rajneesh Agrawal will join the fray from Madhya Pradesh.
Alka Gurjar, BJP national secretary and party's co-in-charge for Delhi, will contest from Rajasthan.
The party has fielded its Manipur president A Sharda Devi as its candidate from the state and senior party leader Tai Tagak from Arunachal Pradesh, according to the list released by party national general secretary Arun Singh.
The Rajya Sabha polls for 24 seats in 10 states, including Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Manipur, will be held on June 18. Bypoll to the Upper House for one seat each in Maharastra, Tamil Nadu and Odisha will also be conducted the same day. The last date for filing of nominations is June 8.
